British combat aircraft continue fight against Daesh

Reapers kept up the fight against Daesh last week striking armed trucks and command posts across eastern Syria and, for the first time, terrorist drone operators.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

“As the threats, we face rapidly evolve and intensify, the work our brave Armed Forces do is paramount to our security at home and abroad. We have been clear that Daesh terrorists have nowhere to hide and we will continue to fight until their poisonous global network is totally destroyed.”

Reapers, Typhoons and Tornado’s struck every day last week providing close air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces clearing Daesh from the Euphrates valley. The coalition air campaign continues to degrade the terrorist group which has lost more than 90% of the territory they previously controlled in Iraq and Syria.

By September 2017, the Ministry of Defence had announced that over 1,000 personnel were engaged in theatre and that the Royal Air Force had conducted around 900 airstrikes, flying over 2,200 sorties, killing 3,000 Islamic State fighters.

It was recently reported that the Royal Air Force is operating at its most intense for 25 years in a single theatre of operation which far outstripped the UK involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan – RAF jets have dropped 11 times more bombs (1,276 strikes) on Syria and Iraq in the preceding 12 months than they had in the busiest year of action in Afghanistan a decade previously.

The MoD says the operation has cost the UK taxpayers £265 million so far.